Mathematical education and interdisciplinarity : promoting public awareness of mathematics in the Azores

Mathematical literacy in Portugal is very unsatisfactory in what concerns international standards. Even more disturbingly, the Azores archipelago ranks as one of the worst regions of Portugal in this respect. We reason that the popularisation of Mathematics through interactive exhibitions and activities can contribute actively to disseminate mathematical knowledge, increase awareness of the importance of Mathematics in today’s world and change its negative perception by the majority of the citizens. Although a significant investment has been undertaken by the local regional government in creating several science centres for the popularisation of Science, there is no centre for the popularisation of Mathematics. We present our first steps towards bringing Mathematics to unconventional settings by means of hands-on activities. We describe in some detail three activities. One activity has to do with applying trigonometry to measure distances in Astronomy, which can also be applied to Earth objects. Another activity concerns the presence of numerical patterns in the Azorean flora. The third activity explores geometrical patterns in the Azorean cultural heritage. It is our understanding that the implementation of these and other easy-to-follow and challenging activities will contribute to the awareness of the importance and beauty of Mathematics.

Silence in organizations and psychological safety : a literature review

In the business world, employees can contribute with information, ideas, concerns, opinions and proposals to their managers in respect of: (1) the way work could be performed, (2) what should / should not be done in the workplace, (3) how a particular decision can be implemented, and (4) how an organizational policy should be formed and executed (Rego, 2013). However, due to a diverse set of factors, employees often choose to remain silent in the workplace. One of these factors is psychological safety, which describes employees’ perceptions of the consequences of taking interpersonal risks in the workplace (Edmondson, 2014). The following paper is essentially a literature review and its aim is to, firstly, make a brief approach to factors reported in the literature that may affect employee voice and silence, followed up by an explanation of the types of silence that can be engaged by employees. Besides that, the authors will also make an approach to physical and psychological safety. Lastly, it will be reported some links, mentioned in the literature, between employee silence and psychological safety.